Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

by Jonathan Shay

Book Overview

In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life.

Seamlessly combining important psychological work and brilliant literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions, Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074321157X
• ISBN13: 9780743211574
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Finally Understand

After reading it and puzzling over it for a couple of months I can honestly say I understand what I have put my wife through for the last 36 and one-half years. Every combat veteran needs to read this book. Just for the understanding if nothing else. Oh, if it is not too late, get some help too.

Believe neither the gloom and doom ...nor the infantilization in popular lore

The author is an expert on the return of combat veterans. The literary references are terrific. For instance, the 'Siren Song' cliche' is generally misunderstood. The Sirens are NOT singing flowery or sentimental or erotic or false lyrics to weary sailors. No, the story goes that only THOSE WHO WERE IN COMBAT would recognize the Sirens' stories as exactly truthful, therefore hypnotic. (I did not know the importance of the particular mythology until this book described the context.) That and much much more...

Support our troops . . .

Shay's decades of work with Vietnam veterans, as described and explained in this book, helped formalize the syndrome of behavior that came to be known as post traumatic stress disorder. It afflicts soldiers living in mortal danger for long periods of time, leaving them afterwards in a near-permanent state of hyper-vigilance. They have suffered what Shay characterizes as a moral injury, which like other disabling war injuries prevents them from returning fully to civilian life. He calls it a moral injury because what has been injured is the ability to trust - even those closest and dearest - and living in the civilian world is impossible without it. The ancients, Shay argues, understood the psychological dangers of combat for those who fight, survive, and return home. The combination of both cunning (necessary for survival) and the predictable errors in judgment among those who both give and take orders are reflected in the character of Odysseus, who returns with his men from the Trojan War in Homer's "The Odyssey." There is, Shay asserts, good reason why his name means literally, "he who makes trouble for others." The loss of all of his men and then the bloodbath that follows his arrival in Ithaca, as he eliminates Penelope's suitors, illustrate how violence and death follow him long after the war is over. The fault lies not in individual men, Shay argues, but in a kind of military command that treats them as replaceable parts of a large fighting machine, instead of as groups of soldiers who train and fight together and then are demobilized together. The communal aspect of this supportive group process helps men and women make the return safely and helps them overcome the aftermath of war's traumatizing impact. Again and again, Shay argues that it is our responsibility as citizens to be sure that those who have risked their lives to serve in the armed forces are provided in turn with the vital services they need to re-enter the world they left behind and to live once again at peace with themselves and others. His argument gives new and urgent meaning to the phrase "Support Our Troops."

a great book on psychological problems in general

The one problem I had with "Achilles in Vietnam" was that it did not seem to offer much in the way of solutions. "Odysseus in America" provides the answers to the ugly problems outlined in the first book. I'm not sure exactly what Dr. Shay intended but these books are relevant for far more than combat PTSD. They are very helpful for an overall understanding of "moral injury" and "psychological injury", to use terms he seems to have invented. I think all therapists should read these books. They are very useful to understanding child abuse also. If you are working on your problems from child abuse or other psychologically traumatic incidents, they are very good.

Homer Knows What War Does To Men!

READ THIS BOOK, because no movie or book has ever captured as vividly and realistically the combat veterans painful re-entry into normal civilian life as Jonathan Shay's "Odysseus in America". READ THIS BOOK and learn that Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are true stories of combat veterans. This will surprise and delight anyone who enjoys the classics or war stories. READ THIS BOOK and understand what the American combat veteran experiences on his return home. Anyone involved in the helping professions will enjoy and benefit. Anybody who has a combat veteran in their family will learn and be better for it. READ THIS BOOK and you will understand the great sin that we all commit against our veterans; especially Vietnam vets. Every woman who has a son will want to read this. READ THIS BOOK and you will finally understand Homer. Dr. Jonathan Shay has shown that it is as true today as it was thousands of years ago that warfare makes men different. He is a psychiatrist who works with veterans in the Boston VA. In his first book "Achilles in Vietnam" he explained the cycle of trauma and pain that is inflicted by combat. This sequence is --betrayal of what's right by commanders (a common Vietnam story), a soldier's rage at this injustice, their withdrawal into a circle of the closest comrades, then the loss of these comrades with accompanying deep guilt and the growing feeling of being already dead, and then the ice cold berserker state and loss of fear in combat. Then veteran is whisked from the killing ground and immediately plunked down in America. He comes home the way he was in Vietnam. Shay explains that Odysseus doesn't trust anybody, tells a lot of lies, gets into a lot of dangerous and foolish situations, conceals himself, disguises himself, and emotionally is as cold as ice to those closest to him. This is realistic of combat veterans at home. He is forever different. How do I know this? I am a Vietnam veteran and served in the 101st Airborne and 1st Infantry Divisions. When I read "Achilles in Vietnam" I said, "He's captured what happened to us and the way we felt." Now Shay has captured our struggles to live normal lives. And, I my true life experiences are part of "Odysseus in America". Shay has one other story in "Odysseus in America". That is prevention of the destruction of our soldiers' psyche. He has ignited a debate for reform. And, Senator John McCain and Max Cleland (both Vietnam veterans) to voice their agreement with Shay. His plan for reform consists of ending the "individual replacement system." Shay explains that, "These kids go into the military and give their total trust and lives to the Army. Then the Army breaks this bond by immediately sending them into combat without the support of anyone they know. They fight alone, and they die alone. This is the consequence of the "individual replacement system" started in World War I, continued in WW II, Korea and Vietnam. We need to change